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Pride and Prejudice
Mountaineers · 10th–12th
The whole room decides in a single evening that Darcy is proud and disagreeable. Has he earned that verdict, or has the room judged him too fast?
The tension Darcy is “looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity”: the same room that passed round his “ten thousand a year” within five minutes now finds that his estate cannot save him from “a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance”.
How a room’s opinion forms and flips in one evening, from the report of Darcy’s income to the verdict on his manners, and the one remark that turns a stranger’s rudeness into Elizabeth’s story.
Mr. Bennet will tell his wife and daughters nothing about Mr. Bingley, so they rely on their neighbour Lady Lucas: he is young, very handsome, very agreeable, and means to come to the next assembly with a large party. A love of dancing being surely a step towards love, hopes run high. Bingley returns Mr. Bennet’s call but sees only him; from an upper window the girls make out a blue coat and a black horse. He declines a dinner because he must go to London, and rumour gives him twelve ladies and seven gentlemen for the ball. The party that enters the assembly-room is five: Bingley, his two sisters, the elder sister’s husband Mr. Hurst, and Mr. Darcy. Darcy draws the room by his height, looks and bearing, and by the report, round the room in five minutes, of ten thousand a year. He is admired for half the evening, until his manners disgust the room: he is proud, above his company, and not even his estate can save him from a forbidding face. Bingley meets everyone, dances every dance and talks of giving a ball. Darcy dances twice, with women of his own party, will be introduced to no one else, and walks about the room. His character is decided, and everyone hopes he will not come again; Mrs. Bennet is most violent against him, because he slighted one of her daughters. Elizabeth, sitting out two dances for want of men, overhears Bingley urge Darcy to dance. Darcy says he dances only with women he knows well, and that any other woman in the room would be a punishment. Bingley offers to introduce him to Jane’s sister. Darcy looks at Elizabeth until she catches his eye, then says coldly that she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt him, and that he will not take up girls other men have slighted. He walks off. Elizabeth is left with no warm feelings towards him, but tells the story with great spirit among her friends, since she delights in anything ridiculous. The family has a good evening: Jane danced twice with Bingley, Mary was called accomplished, Kitty and Lydia never lacked partners. At Longbourn Mr. Bennet, who had hoped his wife’s plans would fail, hears all about Bingley’s partners until he wishes Bingley had sprained his ankle in the first dance, and stops her talk of lace. She turns, bitterly and with some exaggeration, to Darcy: a horrid, conceited man, “Not handsome enough to dance with!” She wishes her husband had been there to give him one of his set-downs, and quite detests the man.
Ask what the Bennets know about Bingley before the ball, and how: a neighbour’s report, a coat seen from a window. Read the assembly-room paragraphs aloud and stop at “turned the tide of his popularity”; list what the room knew of Darcy when it admired him and when it turned. Stop again at “She is tolerable”, and ask what the narrator has told us about why Elizabeth is sitting down. Read Mrs. Bennet’s account last, with “some exaggeration” in mind. The chapter gives no view of Darcy’s thoughts, so keep the talk on what he does and says, and leave the fairness of the verdict for the last written question.
Retell The student retells the chapter in four movements: the guessing before the ball; the party’s entrance and the turn against Darcy; the overheard remark and Elizabeth’s answer to it; and Mrs. Bennet’s account at Longbourn. Look for the order of the room’s two opinions of Darcy, and for what each one rests on.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes a short paragraph in the same build about two newcomers at one gathering: a long sentence listing what the first one did, a short comment, an exclamation of contrast, a long sentence listing what the second one did, and a four-word verdict in the passive, like “His character was decided.” The last sentence should sound like the crowd, not the writer.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues Darcy earned the verdict and gathers his two dances within his own party, “declined being introduced to any other lady”, “a punishment” and “tolerable”. The other argues the room judged too fast and gathers the report “within five minutes”, “much handsomer than Mr. Bingley”, the estate that cannot save his face, and the room’s superlatives. Each side must answer the other’s best line. Neither may explain why Darcy behaves as he does, since the chapter does not say.
Purpose Close on the shape of the chapter. It opens with a family who cannot get a word out of Mr. Bennet and must live on reports, and it ends with Mrs. Bennet’s report, told with “some exaggeration”, to the one person who was not there. Ask why the one scene we witness for ourselves, the overheard remark, sits between two pieces of hearsay, and what that asks of a reader who wants to judge Darcy fairly.
Easier Read the assembly-room paragraphs and the overheard talk aloud. Make two short lists: what the room knew about Darcy when it admired him, and what it knew when it turned against him. Talk through the first, second and fourth discussion questions, then answer the last written question aloud before writing it.
On level Talk through all four discussion questions in order, then write the three written questions as a thesis, the strongest objection and a revised thesis, each with lines from the chapter.
Harder Ask for one argued essay on the copywork passage and the sentence before it in which the room turns. Read the narrator’s account of the room as the neighbourhood’s voice, reported with some irony: the report that arrives in the same list as his features, “discovered”, the estate that cannot save a face, the superlatives of “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world”. How does the narrator let the reader watch the room judging while the room believes it is only seeing? The essay should meet the objection that Darcy’s own words to Bingley, a page later, bear the room out.
1. Rumour said Bingley would bring “twelve ladies and seven gentlemen”, and the party that walks in is five. How far should the room trust the next report, that Darcy has ten thousand a year?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to set the chapter’s reports side by side. Before the ball, “a report soon followed that Mr. Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the assembly”. The girls then hear “that, instead of twelve, he had brought only six with him from London, his five sisters and a cousin”, and “when the party entered the assembly-room, it consisted of only five altogether: Mr. Bingley, his two sisters, the husband of the eldest, and another young man.” Even the corrected report was wrong. Then Darcy draws the room “by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.” The student decides how far the room should trust that report, given what became of the others. The card must not say whether the report of his income is true, which the chapter does not settle, and must not reduce the room’s judgment to a lesson about judging by looks: the room judged him first by his income.
No further than the others. It is the same kind of news, passed the same way: no one is named as its source, and it goes round the room within five minutes, faster than anyone could check it. Both reports about the party were wrong, the second as much as the first: Bingley has two sisters, not five. The room admires him on the third report all the same.
report soon followed that Mr. Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the assembly.
the report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.
Further, on the chapter’s own showing. The reports about the party were guesses about who would come, and the door settled them: anyone could count five. The narrator, who has just shown two rumours failing, lets the income stand. The trouble is less the report than how fast the room admires a man on it, and how fast it drops him after.
it consisted of only five altogether:
looked at with great admiration for about half the evening,
A strong answer A strong response says how far the room should trust the report and grounds it in the reports before it. One reader says no further than the others: it is the same kind of news, unsourced and round the room within five minutes, and both reports about the party were wrong by the time it walked in. Another says the chapter treats them differently: the door settled the party’s size for anyone who could count, and the narrator lets the income stand, so the trouble lies less in the report than in how fast the room admires on it. The best answers notice that the income stands in the same list as his height and his face.
2. Elizabeth sits out two dances because of “the scarcity of gentlemen,” but Darcy puts her among the young ladies “slighted by other men.” Who is slighting her?Character
What it asks It asks the student to set Darcy’s excuse beside the narrator’s explanation. Elizabeth “had been obliged, by the scarcity of gentlemen, to sit down for two dances”. Darcy, who “declined being introduced to any other lady”, looks at her and says, “She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt _me_; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” The student decides who is slighting her. The card must not say why Darcy speaks as he does: the chapter gives no view of his thoughts, so shyness, contempt or discomfort are all guesses.
Darcy is. Gentlemen are scarce, and he is one of the gentlemen who will not dance. He blames other men for a slight he is making himself, and then he makes it out loud. The girl he calls slighted is sitting down partly because of men like him.
Elizabeth Bennet had been obliged, by the scarcity of gentlemen, to sit down for two dances;
declined being introduced to any other lady,
No one, until he speaks. The narrator gives the reason she is sitting, and it is numbers, not a verdict on her. Darcy looks at her “for a moment” and reads her sitting down as a sign of her worth, the way the room read his income as a sign of his. The slight he describes becomes real only when he says it.
I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.
he looked for a moment at Elizabeth,
A strong answer A strong response names who is slighting her and grounds it in the narrator’s reason and Darcy’s words. One reader says Darcy is: a gentleman who will not dance helps make the scarcity, then blames other men for it and adds his own slight aloud. Another says no one was slighting her until he spoke, since the narrator gives numbers as the reason, and Darcy reads her sitting down as a verdict on her, the way the room reads him by report. The best answers leave his motive alone, which the chapter keeps closed, and work from what he says.
3. Elizabeth tells the story to her friends as a joke, because she “delighted in anything ridiculous.” Who is the ridiculous one in that story?Character
What it asks It asks the student to weigh Elizabeth’s answer to the insult. “Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings towards him. She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous.” The student decides whom the laughter is aimed at. The card must not claim she is deeply wounded: the chapter says only that she “remained with no very cordial feelings towards him”.
Darcy. A man who finds a country ball “insupportable”, calls a dance with any other woman in the room “a punishment”, and needs a partner handsome enough to tempt him is easy to make fun of. Told with spirit, the story turns his pride into comedy, and the joke lands on him.
there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with.
She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends;
Elizabeth herself, at least in part. The funniest word in the story is the one about her, “tolerable”. A girl who tells her friends she was found merely tolerable is laughing at her own place in the room. The word “however” leaves open how much the laughing covers.
She is tolerable:
Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings towards him.
A strong answer A strong response names the ridiculous one and grounds it in Darcy’s speech and the narrator’s account of her. One reader says Darcy is: a man who calls dancing a punishment and must be tempted is a gift to a lively storyteller, and the laughter turns his pride against him. Another says she laughs partly at herself, the girl found “tolerable”, and that “however” leaves open how much the laughter covers. The best answers stay with “no very cordial feelings” and do not turn it into a deep wound.
4. Darcy found Elizabeth “not handsome enough to tempt” him, and at home Mrs. Bennet makes it “Not handsome enough to dance with!” Which version makes Darcy look worse?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to compare Darcy’s words with the account that reaches Longbourn. Darcy said, “She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt _me_; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” The narrator says Mrs. Bennet “related, with much bitterness of spirit, and some exaggeration, the shocking rudeness of Mr. Darcy”, and her version runs, “So high and so conceited, that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with!” Her full account is only summed up; what we hear in her own words is what “she added”. The student decides which version is harder on Darcy. The card must not say how Mrs. Bennet came to hear of it; the chapter does not say.
His own. Her line is cruder, but the words we hear from her drop the worst of what he said: “tolerable”, the stress on “me”, and the sneer at girls “slighted by other men”. Her exaggeration lies elsewhere, in “He walked here, and he walked there” and in “horrid”. Set beside his real words, her version is almost a mercy to him.
She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt me;
He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great!
Hers. His words come with “at present” and “no humour”, a man in a bad mood at a crowded ball. The words we hear from her drop the mood and leave a man who ranks girls by looks alone, then wraps him in “horrid” and “conceited”. Hers is also the version Mr. Bennet hears.
I am in no humour at present
for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing.
A strong answer A strong response chooses a version and argues from both. One reader says Darcy’s own words are worse: “tolerable”, the stress on “me” and the sneer at girls “slighted by other men” are harsher than her flat line, and her exaggeration lies in “He walked here, and he walked there”. Another says hers is worse, since it drops his “at present” and leaves a man who ranks girls by looks alone, wrapped in “horrid”. The best answers notice the narrator’s warning, “some exaggeration”, and that hers is the version Mr. Bennet hears.
1. Darcy says he will dance only with a woman he knows well. Is that a fair rule at a ball where he knows almost no one?
What it asks It asks the student to weigh the one reason Darcy gives for himself. When Bingley presses him to dance, he answers, “I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner. At such an assembly as this, it would be insupportable.” To be particularly acquainted is to know someone well. Earlier he “declined being introduced to any other lady”, while Bingley “had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room”. The student builds a thesis on whether the rule is fair at this ball, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say why Darcy holds the rule: the chapter gives no view of his thoughts, so shyness, contempt or discomfort among strangers are all guesses. It must not ask whether the room’s verdict is fair, which is the last question’s work.
Fair, by the family’s own logic. The chapter opens on their belief that “To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love”, and Mrs. Bennet counts Bingley’s partners at home as if each dance meant something. If a dance is a step towards love, a man may choose his partners with care. The rule asks nothing unkind of anyone. It only keeps him off the floor.
To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love;
You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner.
Not fair at this ball, because he will not let the rule be met. A ball is where strangers become acquainted: Bingley meets “all the principal people in the room” in one evening. Darcy “declined being introduced to any other lady”, so no woman outside his party could ever pass his test. With gentlemen scarce, the cost of his rule falls on the women left sitting.
made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room:
declined being introduced to any other lady,
A strong answer A strong thesis says whether the rule is fair at this ball and argues from Darcy’s words and his evening. A student might argue it is fair: the family treats a dance as “a certain step towards falling in love”, so a man who dances only with women he knows well is being careful, not cruel. The strongest objection is that he “declined being introduced to any other lady”, so the rule could never be met, and at a ball short of gentlemen its cost falls on women like Elizabeth. A good revision might hold that the rule alone can be defended, and that the fault lies in refusing the introductions that would let it be kept.
2. Mrs. Bennet detests Darcy, who said Lizzy was not handsome enough. Yet at home she says of Miss Lucas that “nobody can” admire her. How different is she from Darcy?
What it asks It asks the student to set Mrs. Bennet beside the man she condemns. Counting Bingley’s partners for her husband, she says, “First of all, he asked Miss Lucas. I was so vexed to see him stand up with her; but, however, he did not admire her at all; indeed, nobody can, you know; and he seemed quite struck with Jane”. Minutes later she turns to Darcy, “Not handsome enough to dance with!”, and ends, “I quite detest the man.” At the ball the narrator has already told us that her “dislike of his general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his having slighted one of her daughters.” The student builds a thesis on how different she is from Darcy, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say why Darcy spoke as he did, must not say that Jane and Bingley’s dances lead to an engagement, and must not ask whether the room’s verdict on Darcy is fair, which is the last question’s work.
Hardly different. She dismisses Miss Lucas on looks, as Darcy dismissed Elizabeth, and her “nobody can” is as sweeping as his “not handsome enough”. Then she detests a man she has seen for one evening. She is angry at Darcy for the very thing she has just done.
he did not admire her at all; indeed, nobody can, you know;
I quite detest the man.
Different where it counts, in who can hear. She says it at home, to her husband, with Miss Lucas far away. Darcy spoke where Elizabeth sat, just after “catching her eye”. Her unkindness reaches no one it describes; his was said where it could be heard. She also speaks as a mother whose daughter has been slighted, and she says so: Lizzy “does not lose much”.
catching her eye, he withdrew his own, and coldly said,
Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy;
A strong answer A strong thesis says how different Mrs. Bennet is from Darcy and argues from her speech and his. A student might argue she is hardly different: she dismisses Miss Lucas on looks with “nobody can, you know”, then detests a man for dismissing Lizzy on looks, after seeing him for one evening. The strongest objection is that the difference lies in who can hear: she speaks at home to her husband, while Darcy spoke where Elizabeth sat, just after “catching her eye”. A good revision might hold that the two share the same quick judgment by looks, and differ in whether the person judged can hear it.
3. The whole room decides in a single evening that Darcy is proud and disagreeable. Has he earned that verdict, or has the room judged him too fast?
What it asks It asks the chapter’s closing question. Darcy enters to admiration built partly on “the report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.” He is “looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity”. He “danced only once with Mrs. Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being introduced to any other lady”, and the room concludes: “His character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again.” Then come the words Elizabeth overhears, and at home Mrs. Bennet’s “I quite detest the man.” The student builds a thesis on whether Darcy earned the verdict or the room judged him too fast, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not explain why Darcy behaves as he does, and must not take “His character was decided” as Austen’s own verdict.
He earned it, and one evening was enough to show it. He would not be introduced to any lady outside his party at a ball short of men, and he spoke of Elizabeth where she could hear him. Those are things he did, not things the room heard about. A first evening is the only chance a stranger gets to make a first impression.
She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt me;
spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party.
The room judged too fast, both times. It admired him first on a report “in general circulation within five minutes”, then made him “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world”, which sounds like the room talking, not the narrator. A verdict that swings that far in half an evening is resting more on the room’s mood than on the man. His rudeness was real; the size of the verdict is the room’s own.
within five minutes after his entrance,
He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again.
A strong answer A strong thesis says whether Darcy earned the verdict and argues from what he did and from what the room went on. A student might argue he earned it: declining every introduction at a ball short of gentlemen and speaking of Elizabeth within her hearing are faults a single evening shows plainly. The strongest objection is that the room’s opinion swung first on a report of his income and was then given in its own superlatives, “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world”, which reads as the neighbourhood’s voice more than the narrator’s. A good revision might hold that his rudeness was real and the verdict larger than the rudeness, and weigh which of the two the chapter most wants the reader to notice.
Mr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room: he was lively and unreserved, danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one himself at Netherfield.Known to someone, having met and talked enough to be more than strangers (from the same root as acquaintance). The word runs through the chapter and splits the two friends. Bingley “made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room” within an evening. Darcy will not dance “unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner”. One man makes acquaintance as fast as he can; the other asks for it before he will begin. The room judges both men on the difference.
Mr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room: he was lively and unreserved, danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one himself at Netherfield.Open and free in manner, holding nothing back (un- plus reserved, as a reserved person keeps to himself). Bingley “was lively and unreserved”, and the word sets him against his friend, who speaks only “occasionally to one of his own party”. The room reads Bingley’s openness as goodness at once. Whether reserve is a fault is the question the chapter leaves standing beside Darcy.
His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.A person’s bearing: the look and manner with which they carry themselves (a literary word, said like “mean”). Darcy draws the room by “his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien”, and the list sets his bearing beside his height, his face and his income, as if all four were things the room could see. Within the evening the same bearing is read as being “above his company”. The word names an outside, which is all the room has to judge by.
“She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.Here, a mood or state of mind, not something funny (an older sense, still heard in “in a good humour” and “to humour someone”, to go along with their mood). Darcy says he is “in no humour at present” to dance with Elizabeth. The phrase makes his refusal sound like a passing mood, and “at present” says it again. A reader can weigh whether the mood excuses the words or only explains them.